Friday, February 10, 2006

The Public is Annoying. Pt. 736 of 199847305

I am 8 months pregnant, which means that yes, I am visibly pregnant and may in fact look like I am going to pop at any time. I am not, in fact, going to pop at any time. Yes, I have a big round belly and yes, I'm sure there's only one baby in there and no, I'm pretty sure there's not another one hiding behind my liver.

Okay, so here's a typical day for me now. Patron walks up, asks how far along I am. When I reply, there are generally two reactions. Reaction number one (usually from women): "Wow, congratulations!" Reaction number two: "Are you sure? Because it looks like you could go at any time."

Fine. I am an easy target, since they have to interact with me anyway and I am a government employee, so I pretty much have to be civil to them (although why OTHER government departments are apparently encouraged to be surly and unhelpful is beyond me and a subject for another day).

What really cheeses me off? The ones who continue to ask questions. "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" "Is this your first?" "Do you have a name picked out?" The last one is really the kicker. Because if I answer truthfully (yes, we do have a name picked out), then she (it's ALWAYS a woman who asks this question) then looks at me expectantly until I tell her the name!!! Hell, these people don't even know MY name, why are they so darned interested in the baby's name?!

I can't wait until this baby gets here, because then the patrons will forget I was ever pregnant and they can resume ignoring me outside of the time it takes for me to sign them up for a computer. Which is yet another subject for another day: why a master's degree is required to sign people up to use the Internet.